


Majordomo

by xiorlanth



Series: Paths [2]
Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-10 11:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10436445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiorlanth/pseuds/xiorlanth
Summary: There are entire universes outside the Commonwealth that slammed their doors down when regenex began to be used. Seraphi Abrasax knows she won't live long enough to see a path opened, but she have laid the ground works. It's up to her heirs now.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Bits and pieces from the Jupiter Ascending and Marvel crossover, being slowly assembled. The Marvel bits are very minimal at the moment.

She had declined to go back with her mother and aunt after their last cleaning job of the day, and paused at a bistro for a cup of coffee. It was an indulgence, but she’s learning how to want things for herself. Captain’s orders, even. Or advice.

“When I took my gap decade between Legion and Aegis, I had to learn how to use money.” the captain had said. “I believe you are in the same position of being unfamiliar with such liquid resources as I was. There is a difference between failing to use your resources wisely, and failing to use your resources. And you need to learn the difference.”

Baby steps, she thought. Baby steps. Anyway, all she had to her name on the planet currently was the five grand from Vladie’s scheme that nobody had turned up to claim back.

She had been working on the sheaves of intergalactic laws and her properties listing, but even abbreviated lists are too long to manage on her own. And she wasn’t sure that she should let someone from Abrasax Industries manage her. 

“Captain Tsing, can you take me to Orus again?” she had asked. “Or at least point me out to some non-shady transport companies-- there has to be ships for hire or something.”

“I am still on escort duties to you, your majesty, and would be happy to escort you personally or any ship you choose to hire to Orus.”

Diomika Tsing answered.

"Why? I mean, you've completed your mission, right?" she asked.

The captain had looked at her intently, and asked if she would ever let earth be harvested.

"No! Never!" she said vehemently. "Earth and my other planets aren't going to be harvested, ever." 

"And that is why my ship is seconded to you for the foreseeable future, your majesty. There is a hard threshold before a harvest is no longer allowed on developed worlds. No new world have passed that threshold in this region for eight thousand years, and the last was also a recurrence-held planet. The Commonwealth and the Aegis is very interested in your safety," Captain Tsing said.

The scrape of a chair snapped her out of her thoughts. An elegantly-suited man claiming the seat in front of her wasn’t strange, given that they were in one of the more expensive districts of the city, but he wasn’t carrying any beverage. He had, instead, a small box he put onto the table and with one hand slid it across to her. 

She ignored the jewelry box raised an eyebrow at the man in front of her. “I don’t know what you think I am,” she said--

“I know exactly who you are, your majesty.” the man answered.

She fought for the puzzled look she trained on the man. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

The man had a very slight smile and a nod, “And it would be wise to keep it that way on this planet for a while. But in the next times you make it to Orus, keep this with you. Your Legionnaires may both be trusted with that knowledge. But do keep it from you Aegis escorts. The Lady Seraphi invested a lot into your creation, it would be an utter waste should your claim be considered invalid.”

The man’s eyes hardened as he emphasised the word ‘creation’. A created copy isn’t an eligible recurrence. That had been made very clear at some point before. She sat back and glared. “I am a random chance.”

“So you were, and became eligible to claim your inheritance from her,” he answered baldly. “A lot of chances and missed chances,” the man soured. “You have no idea how frantic it was when midgard began its industrial age.”

The man rose, bowed and disappeared into thin air in her moment of surprise. She blinked at the empty air in front of her, before looking down at the box that was her only proof of the encounter.

A locket of red, with a chased motif of lotus in gold nestled within.

* * *

Orus on her second look was still breathtaking in an unfamiliar way. Step One; find out where her money are.

* * *

The finance counselor office’s line is six hour deep.

“Do we have to use the government services?” she asked. “Are there private practices?”

Advocate Bob smiled uncertainly. “There are, your majesty. But my services are limited to government run offices.” 

“Damn.” she said. 

“I could point out where independent advocates could be hired or purchased,”

“Purchased?” she growled.

“The contracts, of course.” Bob answered.

“How did my...case ended with you that first time?” she asked.

“The system assigns cases on a queue. Yours is my second major case.” Advocate Bob burbled. “The cases are assigned according to experience level, I was surprised. Entitled cases are senior first class advocates and above, though usually they bring their own advocates and lawyers.”

“And what class are you?”

“Novice third class,” Advocate Bob promptly answered, beaming. 

She stared at the advocate someone had set up to fail her, took a deep breath, held them for a count of ten, and opened her eyes again.

She really need help, but she wouldn’t even trust Kalique right now, let alone any of the assorted members of Abrasax industries and distant relations. Add to her long to-do-list: Find out who set her up to fail the first time.

* * *

His client had her eyes closed and was counting down under her breath. He shuffled along the line as it moved slightly.

Her eyes snapped open. “If I buy your contract, can you handle the private financial offices?”

“Yes,” he answered truthfully. The knowledge is in his information module.

“Can I buy your contract?” she asked.

“My contract are available for purchase,” he answered.

“No, no, no,” Jupiter stopped him. “Would you like me to buy your contract?”

He paused. “Service with an entitled is considered a desirable posting,” he tried-

“Do you desire it?” his client asked. 

“Yes,” he answered. “But full disclosure requires me to tell you that to offer such services would require certain financial modules that are not currently installed.”

“Can you get the upgrade?”

“I don’t have the resources required at the moment,”

“Let me paraphrase that. If you can use my resources to get those upgrade, would they be available?”

“Certainly,” Bob answered. “But such access would first require the services of this office.”

She looked down the hundreds-deep queue, looked behind her at the imposing bear splice that had taken the position behind her, and the arrival of more people to join the queue, and sighed.

“Hi, I’m Jupiter Jones. What’s your name?” she asked.

* * *

One access to Seraphi’s restored personal accounts, check. Full access to properties deeded to Lady Seraphi’s recurrence, check. Preliminary access to properties and holdings from Balem’s invalidated inheritance due to matricide, check. One legal advocacy bot’s contract purchased, check. One advocacy bot ensconced in various module upgrades, check. One private message, filed with the public wills and trust office to be given to her with alongside the access to the personal accounts, check.

One innocuous looking sheave containing the personal message, red enamel decorated in chased golden lotus relief and waiting for her seal to unlock it.

“Are you going to look at that?” Caine asked.

“I will,” she answered, and kept eating. Four separate queues used up a lot of energy. She’s even beginning to get used to standing in line for hours at a time. In front of her Ursula was gulping in platefuls at a time. She tried to contrast the amount of food with the fact that the bear splice was in the financial office to try for some assistance after being swindled out of her legion pension and decided that she was right to take the splice in. 

“What?” Ursula snapped at her.

“I’m trying to figure out if you go into hibernation. Do you?” Jupiter asked.

“Sure,” Ursula answered. “A specialty of the Ursid splices. Stasis units can be found. We can be dropped into position in advance and hibernate until it’s time, and then your enemy count is skewed because there’s more ground troops on the line.”

“Really?” Jupiter asked. “That...wasn’t the answer I was expecting.” 

“Why not?”

“It seemed like a liability, having to hibernate,” Jupiter said.

“If you can’t control it, sure. Fars De’so, that’s our splicer, takes pride that he’d eliminated the environmental triggers. Hibernate only when we decide to do it, that’s us. Too bad I made a bad decision about that,” Ursula growls.

“Oh?”

“Invest my pension, go to hibernate, wake up in three months for the interest.” she growled. “They specifically targets ex-legions like us, and disappeared when we woke up. Probably have run away to one of the other mother-planets.”

“Mother planets?”

“Orus is the oldest, the original human planet. It became the capital for this region of space. The Abrasax family is very old, so almost all of your legal matters are handled on Orus, your majesty,” Caine explained. “Some of the older, out flung settlements grew around other planets like Orus, new capitals, essentially. Some families on those side almost never interacted with Orus. Whoever swindled Ursula and other legions veterans, they have to get away that far, build up new identities and everything in the archive there, otherwise we, saying some members of the Legion, would have tracked anything they did here while we would have to start from scratch there. Assuming we know which mother planets.”

"I...see." Jupiter said. "You're interested in going to look? Both of you?"

Caine snorted. "No," he brusquely said, and tilted his head to Ursula.

"Not really. I would go after them if I hear any news, but your contract comes first. Now that we've completed negotiations, I can tell you that the contract is too generous," Ursula pointed her finger at Jupiter. "You need to find a manager. But if you need to hire anyone again, tell me. we'll mark it down to anyone else you makes an offer to."

Jupiter swallowed her sigh. Even people she just met could tell she needs help, fast.

"Don't look at me. Stinger did all my contracts," Caine said. "And we don't have one right now."

"You don't?" Ursula's head snapped to look at him. "You're a Skyjacker. I thought she copied your contract for mine. Why are you here without a contract..."

"It's. None. Of. Your. Business." she bit out. From the glance Ursula had moving between her and Caine, she has her answer written all over her face.

"None of my business. Got it." the bear splice grabbed a new stack of pancakes and tipped the entire bottle of honey onto it. "Do you have more honey?"

"I'll get it." Caine said. His eyes flicked between her and the sheave, and an eyebrow raised.

She sighed again and picked up.

The sheave held the contract to a storage facility.

“Welcome, welcome,” the agent said. “This is one of our oldest contracts,” they waved them into a small hangar. “We inherited it during the merger or our parent company,”

She tuned out the burbling history of the details to later summation by Bob and focused on the ship inside. It was a small ship compared to the Aegis cruiser, smaller still compared to Titus’ clipper.

“I would say that this would be one of Seraphi Abrasax’s personal ships,” Captain Tsing said. It was clear in the Lotus details that decorated everything the entitled owned.

“It’s clear inside,” Caine commed out. “There’s a console active. But it’s asking for a password to start it or for the details.”

Something about the ship was familiar. It was in fact the detailings, a golden and red weave she had seen before. 

“Wait a moment, Caine,” she said, “I’ll be right there.”

Inside the tiny, but opulent bridge, she pulled out the red and gold locket from under her shirt. A chime rang, and a sheave with a seal lock slid out, with a socket for a centerpiece. The locket fit perfectly, and with her seal she activated the other consoles. The ship came alive with the barest thrum under their feet.

The flight path was highlighted in clear gold in front of them. And a note. Pack food for a week.

“Welcome to the clipper Padma. I am Nalini, the ship’s presence," a female voice chimed around them.

* * *

“Aegis cruiser, this is Caine Wise from the clipper Padma. We have a heading and formally requests an Aegis escort,”

“Clipper Padma, please be advised that we have received and approved your escort request. Please transmit your headings on mark. Mark.”

Caine and Captain Tsing ritual continued in a soft susurration of professional calm as she began searching the ship’s consoles for clues to whatever it was in front of her.

“What are you thinking?” Caine asked as he shut the channel down.

“Seraphi Abrasax left me a treasure hunt. Why would she do that? And we still don’t know anything about the person who left me the locket.” she said. She had not even let on the ‘creation’ commentary out to Stinger. She don’t know how serious Titus’ intention to stop the harvests on his worlds, but there’s a chance Kalique would get earth if her inheritance was invalidated, and Kalique certainly still harvest her worlds.

Three days through a convoluted series of jumps, they reached an asteroid field.

"We have reached the edge of the Convayo Maze," Caine murmured. "No one comes here. Ships tend to disappear in this place, and no one knows why. There is a strange energy phenomenon that is still being studied. And at the other edge of the maze is the armistice with the Spirax Empire."

"An empire? Not part of the Commonwealth?" 

"Not even a part of this universe. It is the point where two bubbles touch, in eleven dimensions. The commonwealth have been trying to find a way past the blockade forever."

The red ship drifted slowly to interlock with the hidden panels on a tumbling asteroid no one would take a second look at. It was large enough to hide a decent facility, Caine judged. A dead facility or a powered down one. It was neither, as it turned out after they walked past the doors after the docking sequence finished. 

It was simply a huge room, heavily shielded he realised, as he looked at the industrial power sources meant to last thousands of years within, all set up to support a custom-built stasis chamber in the middle of the room. A single splice hovered within - young. Younger than even possible with Regenex, he realised. This was someone who hadn’t reached their full growth. 

The stasis chamber is also cycling down, the crystal within losing their slight opaque into true transparency, and the artificial gravity bubble within slowly reestablish itself alongside the artificial gravity of the main chamber as the splice floats down in a cloud of fabric and hair. The clear cylindrical top slid away to leave the splice on top of a medical bed blinking away grogginess. His eyes had latched onto Jupiter’s face, vaguely frowning as he looked at her.

“Your majesty? But you’re dead,” he said. “You were dead,” he said as his eyes fluttered closed.

“Post stasis exhaustion,” the medical officer aboard the Aegis cruiser said. “Letting him wake up on his own would be best. The patent markers in his gene sequence are quite old, very likely in use during her majesty’s Seraphi’s death, but there are also specific sequences that are off, quite in an unknown way, alongside a very strange markers in his biochemistry. While I cannot say why he was hidden here, he looks to be a legitimate member of her majesty Seraphii’s entourage. I see no objection to waiting for him to wake up here, or transfering him onto the cruiser or your ship.”

“On the ship,” he said. “Your majesty’s ship,” he clarified at Jupiter’s glance. Now that the stasis chamber has cycled down, whatever heating that was keeping the room warm had stopped too. A stopgap measure, he knows - if the stasis chamber simply failed, the frozen room would keep it’s inhabitant alive. Alive and needing medical aid instead of recovering normally, but still alive. The room was getting noticeably chillier - it might even be actively cooled. He lifted the kid into his arm - now even younger than what he looked in stasis. “C’mon. This place is getting cold.”

He put the kid in the small cabin that already have the kid’s clothing and belongings in its tiny closet - this treasure hunt, as Jupiter put it, is incredibly organised. It even had pajamas in the kid’s size originally laid out on the bed. Ursula has already been moved to the room he claimed, and he put his belongings in the room he’ll share with Jupiter. He checked on Bob, who was still on his offline rig in the cargo bay.

On the bridge, Jupiter was looking at the progress bar showing the generation of a portal - to earth. Or, he looked at the details, to earth’s moon’s orbit. The ship was still auto-piloting itself through its paces. Jupiter had pulled open the container labelled food, day five and rummaged through its contents, and now have a cup of hot chocolate in her hand.

“How is he?” Jupiter asked softly.

“Deeply asleep. We’ll worry if it goes on for a day, but the health monitor shows everything is fine.” he answered. Jupiter had a image of her moon up, zooming around with practised ease. Seraphi Abrasax’s lunar alcazar was specifically shut down and all access barred except for her recurrence after her death. They hadn’t investigated because it had demanded a specific security code they had hoped to be found somewhere Seraphi’s vast inheritance to her recurrence. It seemed instead Jupiter had been given access in a manner her predecessor had arranged.

It was hours later, with the portal path only halfway calculated, when the door to the bridge slid open behind them. The kid, wearing the clothes from the closet that was clearly his in his ease in them, bowed to Jupiter.

“Your Majesty,” he murmured. “I am Zvi Kelav. Her majesty Lady Seraphi Abrasax sends her regards and her hopes for you, and myself as a majordomo to assist in this undoubtedly troubling time.”

“No offense, kid,” Caine said, “but you don’t look old enough to leave the creche, let alone be a majordomo.”

Zvi gave a faint smile. “I am three hundred years old. I will reach my full growth in three or more centuries. My training is complete to the time it was, and I’m very capable of adapting to this time’s requirements.”

“Regenex?” Jupiter asked.

“Regenex restores you to a physical age of early twenties. It won’t do anything to someone that young.” Caine growled. The kid doesn’t smell like he was lying. "Humans don't need centuries to reach full growth."

“My specific gene sequences is a very rare secret, your majesty, and her majesty traded dearly for it. It will be revealed to you in due time, as her majesty’s heir. But in the mean time, would you accept my services?” Zvi asked and proffered her a sheave. “Given the length of time I had been asleep, my knowledge requires some refreshing, but I will endeavour to rise to the challenge.”

Jupiter took the proffered sheave, accessing and skimming the information, frowning.

Sometime after, the portal opened. Earth beckons.

* * *

Some hours after that, half a dozen ships shimmered into view. 

The asteroid was reduced to dust to spread in the wake of ships finally on their way home. 

It had been a very long watch.


	2. Chapter 2

Donald Pearson blinked as he pulled up the checkboard in hand. Oh, he’s finished with the inventory. The stylus paused in his finger he looked at the notation over cables. Did he make sure to replace the boxes with the correct ones?

An entire work crew exited the service elevator as he entered, still tapping at his email. Which makes the situation stranger as he takes delivery of more boxes at the ground level and they streamed out. 

“You can’t be done.” he said.

“There’s a cancel order for today, just came in.” one of them shouted out.

Strange. But stranger things did happen. Even if the progress charts are starting to get more amber and red. He tapped a note into his schedule. “I was going to ask a couple of you to help me get this up.” he said. 

“I’ll help. Jerry, you want to help out?” One of them said, and turned to raise an eyebrow at the crew leader. 

Tom nodded his permission, “It’s not like we have anything to do yet. They assigned us to the warehouse, but that’s two hours more, and we can get there in half an hour.”

He was jacking the last pallet into place when his phone rang. “Pearson,” he said, “Yeah, I’m at the site.”

“I’m coming over to look. Tom’s not answering his phone he and his crew got there okay?”

“No, they all had cancel orders...well I don’t know, I just makes sure they have the stuff they need, not what their orders said, wait, a couple of the guys are still here, you want to talk to them?”

He handed the phone to Zan and watched the man walked a bit away.

From the way Zan stiffened up the news can’t be good. He took the phone back and shrugged at Zan’s dirty look and brought the phone to his ear.

“I’m expecting another shipment, so yeah I can wait. Mm hmm, the guys too. You know I can’t call Tom back here - okay, see you soon.”

The next time they trucked in another set of boxes to the level it was to familiar sounds of drills and hammers filling the air interspersed by an unusual clipped voice berating whoever it was over the scheduling conflict. “Nobody could figure out where the adjustments keep coming from.” the voice growled as he slipped his phone into his jacket, “That’s it. I’m staying right here until we figure out who keep rearranging this site’s priority. Pearson,” he shouted, ”The IT guys are sending over some equipment, can you shepherd them up when they get here?”

Donald raised a thumbs up and pulled out his phone to tell building reception to expect yet another shipment. 

In the meantime the new guy picked up his laptop bag and walked into the partitioned off area where plastic sheets kept the dust and detritus of construction away and stopped with a section of the plastic curtain still held up by his hand.

“Hey, someone’s squatting here,” he called out. 

He left his forklift to have a look. Sleeping bag, a mini stove, a small fridge. A table set up with various equipment. Colourful chip bags peeking out of a crate repurposed into a trash can.

“How would someone even get up here?” Jerry muttered as he crowded in for a look.

Blank.

  


Waking up is a rush of awareness.

The familiar ceiling brought a degree of calm. He was aboard the Padma, in his own cabin, and somewhat safe.

“Good morning, Zvi, and welcome back.” Nalini chimes. “We are currently in the Convayo Maze Delta region. The ship is currently preparing to portal to Lady Seraphi Abrasax’s previous main residence. We have aboard her majesty’s recurrence Lady Jupiter Jones escorted by Legionnaires Caine Wise and Ursula Opeatrix as well as Advocate Bob. Padma is currently escorted by an Aegis Cruiser captained by Captain Diomika Tsing.”

He rose and stretched a bit, gauging his body’s response. A moment later Nalini passed through a medical report - he’s been checked thoroughly by an Aegis medical officer, and yet still wakes up aboard Padma. It bodes well for the new recurrence. Speaking of which-

He patted the last pieces of his usual clothes down, and sat down on the bed and set the braider to clean and put his hair in its usual style and used the stillness required to close his eyes and review all information about her that was available. Moments later, he reviewed the key informations about her personalities - the negotiations at her house, her refusal to abdicate to Balem Abrasax, the screaming fight-

Balem’s admission that he killed Seraphi Abrasax, as recorded by Legionnaire Caine Wise’s tracker on Jupiter Jones.

Her actions since, and the few personnel she recruited, all of whom are on board the ship. The Aegis cruiser escorting them.

And then he brushed against the data link to the Alcazar and was hit by a deluge of urgent messages.

Oh dear.

  


The lady’s recurrence reviewed the sheave in record time, the seal holding the steady glow that proved a familiarity with the information flow that would be only be hard won through repeated use. 

“Seraphi Abrasax left you in stasis specifically to help her recurrence,” her majesty Jupiter Jones said, “specifically, me.”

“Yes, your majesty,” Zvi said. “She has seen recurrences ruined by their inheritances before, and wished her recurrence to not receive the same fate.” 

“But I don’t trust you,” her majesty said, “And neither did I trust Seraphi Abrasax, so why would I place any of my trust in you? Especially since-” she paused, indecisive.

“There are matters that we can only discuss in private, your majesty,” he agreed.

Her majesty held his gaze for some moments before looking at the bear splice behind him. 

“Ursula, please leave. You can stay in the commissary or something,” she said.

“Sure thing, Jupiter,” the splice said. The sound of her footsteps pattered away. 

He looked up at the other splice and back at her majesty.

“Caine stays. Whatever you say can be said to him, no matter how risky it is.” Jupiter said.

He weighed the resolute tone and was pleased.

“Nalini,” he murmured, “ghost.”

“Ghost mode activated,” Nalini chimed sweetly. “Full silence shield in effect. No recording will be made until otherwise instructed.”

“Earth...is only beginning its genetic age,” he said. “You was found to be a recurrence of her majesty barely a few decades after the technology to test genetic information is widely available on your planet. It is a remarkable coincidence, isn’t it?”

“I am beginning to think so,” she said. “Are you implying something, mister Kalev?”

“Zvi, your majesty. Her majesty Seraphi had arranged certain insurances with her allies to make sure that there will be a recurrence on Earth” he agreed. 

“And am I to guess that there are certain insurances against not taking you as my majordomo too?” she asked.

“No, there are not. But there are certain - benefits, as I understand it, if they were to agree to contact you, agreements they would expect you to follow as Seraphi’s heir," he said.

"Agreements." The tone was flat.

"I am not familiar with the details, unfortunately. Her former allies wished to evaluate your actions themselves before they decided whether to continue the alliance. As such, I have been kept out of the matters in regards to them. You are free to decline my contract, of course. I should however point out that before you do, there are some specific problems on earth right now that needs attention.”

“Problems?” her majesty asked.

“You have not been getting reports from the keepers, are you?” he smiled at her. “Balem Abrasax had the keepers control center moved to the refinery at Jupiter. They have, essentially, been working without supervision for the past few weeks. However, there is a backup control on the alcazar. The locket carries a link between here and the alcazar, so I can show you this,”

He brought up a series of a few people. 

“These people managed to compile a series of records detailing the disappearance of one hundred thousand people on a single night,” he said, “and in between them manage to keep copies of that information moving. The keepers have blanked each of them several times, but since they keep receiving the compiled information anew, they had to be blanked,” he paused the recording and arranged them in a series of snapshots. “again, again, and again. This is the kind of decisions the refinery manager would make, only, a Chicanery Night, he had not checked in since the destruction of the refinery. Out of curiosity, would you like to pass along an instruction for the keepers? I believe a more robust recording of their actions would allow us to pick up the instances of how they manage to keep the information moving and stop the cycle.”

“Actually, I would rather the blanking stop.” her majesty decided. "Full stop."

“That would allow the knowledge that one hundred thousand people was harvested, your majesty.” he said. “The matter might become a cause of problem later.”

“So be it.” she said back. “Stop the blanking. Let them know. Keep knowing.” She paused, "Keep the names. I want to know who they are."

“So it will be.” he murmured, issuing a few orders to the keepers, and moving on to the next problem he had noted. “There is the matter of the Willis Tower where a series of blankings is also continuously administered.”

“Willis Tower? Why?” her majesty asked. “Nothing happened there.”

“I believe the keepers standing instructions were to hide the presence of non-terrestrial lifeforms, of whom Mr. Wise certainly is. As he had set up living quarters and his devices there, the keepers had to continually blank the workers that wandered into the area. One of keepers has slightly more initiative and is actually issuing cancellation orders to the workers to keep the blanking at a minimum.”

“Caine!” her majesty exclaimed.

“What, I thought the floor was abandoned. It looked abandoned.” the splice defended.

“It’s under renovation, wow,” her majesty took control and zoomed around the place. “One of the highest floors of Willis Tower, and you thought the place can be abandoned. I guess you have to pack up and move to Stinger’s house or something. It’s not like we can buy the place.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“Why not...buy the level?” her majesty asked.

“I was thinking of the tower itself, but buying the levels under renovation might be more appropriately discreet.”

“But...I don’t have the money for that. Sure I have space money, but not on earth.”

“It is customary for certain reserves and accounts to be created locally within any financial systems. There is more than enough funds to acquire the levels as an appropriate working space. I believe that Mister Wise’s confusion is because he is familiar with a much faster schedule for building and renovations.” he noted. “Does your majesty prefers to maintain your current domicile?” 

“Yes?” she answered. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“In that case, such a space would be useful, I think, for your activities, and we can arrange cover for your disappearances more effectively.”

“Disappearances?” she asked.

He pulled up a poster with both their faces. 

Jupiter Jones, missing since Tuesday. Suspected kidnapper, Caine Wise.

“Oh, yeah,” she said faintly. “I told mom that I would be gone for about three days. It’s been what, close to eight days, now?”

  


Amid data streams and building plans and fake alibi and new accounts for her and Caine, Nalini interrupted.

“Portal generation complete. Portal to the lunar alcazar is now open. Does your majesty wish to proceed?” it said.

“Yea- wait. Didn’t you say it would take four hours?” Jupiter asked.

“Four hours has passed since the last time you requested the information, your majesty,” Nalini answered.

“But...all we did was...paperwork…” she glanced at the neatly arrayed documents floating around them. “A lot of paperwork.”

“Captain Tsing from the Aegis cruiser is hailing. Would you like ghost mode to be terminated?” Nalini asked. 

“Terminate ghost mode. Caine, if you would?” she asked. 

“Your majesty,” he nodded, and took control of communications. The portal went smoothly, and the autopilot engaged itself again as their ship moved towards the moon. She turned to look at Zvi, and decided.

“You can stay. But I’m still reviewing that contract with Bob.” she said. “And I still want to know more of what we initially discussed about.”

“Very well, my lady,” Zvi bowed.

“Don’t. Don’t do that,” she said. “Bowing and stuff. And call me Jupiter.”

“A certain amount of decorum is expected between an entitled and her entourage, even the ones closest to her,” he demurred.

“And you can do that when there’s other entitleds about. But here, with only you and me, call me Jupiter.” she said.

“That is a reasonable compromise. Jupiter. But I would like to limit such familiarity to situations with your intimates presence only,” he answered. 

“Your majesty,” Caine said, “Captain Tsing requests, strongly, that the cruiser escort us into the alcazar.”

The last time Captain Tsing failed to escort her into an enclosed space had not turn up well for all parties involved. 

“Sure,” she said. “Can it accommodate the ship?”

“It can,” Zvi answered. A model of the alcazar formed up and its gates opened to the maximum. The projected Aegis cruiser barely fits the aperture, “it’s advised to use the automated controls.”

Caine relayed the information, and she paused to listen to his voice in its glorious depth. 

“You allow Mr. Wise to address you...” he observed.

“Caine’s different,” she answered. “Just. Different. Situation, that is. It’s fine for him,” she’s blushing. She’s blushing and Caine smiling slightly while not looking at them. Zvi’s eyes is flicking between the two of them, and she could see him filing Caine out of the bodyguard slot into somewhere else.

“Very well. Jupiter,” Zvi said.

“We’re ready to proceed, your majesty,” Caine said, and she blushed even more at his tone. He was playing it up.

“Very well,” she sulked, and pointedly looked at the growing view of the shimmering circle the main screen was showing.

Their little ship moved smoothly through the aperture and accelerated away onto a landing platform that smoothly rose into a custom dock. She had already stepped out of their ship while the bulky cruiser was still being moved carefully through a gap barely large enough for it. On the farther side of the lush valley huge pillars rose smoothly to receive the ship. 

From her landing deck, affording an incredible view of its surroundings, she was looking over an expanse of greenery encircling a small lake. Beautiful buildings buid up against the walls of the crater, a massive mansion the centerpiece of an arc that encircles two thirds of the walls. Zvi had pulled up some controls, smoothly directing the transports from the cruiser onto landing platforms nearby.

Overhead the sky is a field of stars with the earth shining down on them. Wild growth sprawl green on overgrown banks below. Fountains burbled into waterways. Greeneries lined the pathways filling the air with a clean, fresh scent. The pathway she took grew in the intricacies of its design the nearer she moved until she reached the largest circular area, when the entire circle lit up and the water features were limned in white.

“Good evening, your majesty. I am Domi, the estate’s presence.”


End file.
